So I think you bring up a fair point- I was looking at it from the perspective that it would not be reasonable to assume “Hey- that thing I am shooting at must be a person in costume,” but it is also true that license to hunt something does not mean license to shoot anything.
I was really trying to zero in on the idea that being tricked into killing someone is not the same as trying to kill someone, which is in response to the statement that if a slain bigfoot were determined to be a person in costume the assailant would be prosecuted for murder. My general sense is that the authorities take the whole set of circumstances into account.
If you had a license, it would probably be better to say you thought you were shooting at a deer than at a Bigfoot. As long as the Bigfoot wasn’t wearing a fluorescent orange vest, you would probably get off.
Most of the points and thoughts brought up in this thread, have been discussed ad infinitum for years among the community of students of the Bigfoot mystery. The general consensus there about the use of tranquilizer darting to secure a Bigfoot specimen, would seem to be: the trouble is, that hard knowledge of the traits and characteristics of this alleged creature, is minimal-to-non-existent. Tranquilizer-gun activity requires a knowledge of the exact dose needed; which in respect of Bigfoot, nobody knows. Too weak a dose, would be liable to mean an extremely pissed-off Bigfoot in close proximity; too strong a dose – a dead Bigfoot.
Someone may have killed an unknown hominid/proto-human:
According to the July 17, 1899 Bismarck Daily Tribune, Archie Brower, an owner of a tent show, got into a fight with his attraction- a freak he dubbed the missing link. The newspaper described the brute as being higher than a monkey but below a human. Brower got angry at the being and hit it over the with a heavy club and killed it.
The police arrested him and he was charged with murder. His defense lawyers claimed that missing link was not human, so Brower should not be charged. Brower claimed the beast was really a monkey. Not sure why he got into an argument with one and murdered it though. The magistrate allowed a grand jury to decide.
Other newspapers on Newspapers.com talk about the Archie Brower story, but don’t really add much to the story. I assume that it was subsequently determined that the missing link was not human, but that is not confirmed by the available record.
Most states have laws protecting endangered species. Bigfoot seems pretty elusive and hard to find. Their population must be pretty small, assuming that they exist,
I’m dying to know what the great book cover was, since Exapno’s link is dead. The only book covers I can find on google are pretty pathetic: A blue background and a red circle: https://img.fantasticfiction.com/images/n28/n140647.jpg
Depends on what the authorities want. Probably confiscate the body and threaten you into silence.
Social media makes revealing them easier (if they exist), but any pics or footage could still be explained away as a hoax. Just because you can replicate something with CGI means it’s fake dontcha know?
Nearly ALL Native American lore contain their own version of sasquatch. Will there be a backlash from tribal elders who view them as literal forest people?
There seems to be very real complications if their existence is widely known.
IMO one would have to hide the body and reveal it at a football game or a big social event with lots of news media to really expose it.
What exactly do “the authorities” have to gain by keeping Bigfoot secret?
I mean, I get it. We don’t have any evidence of Bigfoot, so if Bigfoot is common, someone must being doing a lot of work to keep the existence of Bigfoot a secret. And who is that someone? “The authorities”.
But who exactly are these authorities? And how, if Bigfoot is a secret, do the lesser authorities know to keep Bigfoot a secret? Like, do local sheriffs and game wardens and wildlife biologists know all about Bigfoot, and know to keep it secret? But how exactly do the authorities enlist the assistance of all these hundreds of low level local dudes, and none of them ever go public, and we don’t have any documents or secret memos from the Illuminati to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife ordering them to cover up the existence of Bigfoot?
And if the low level guys aren’t in on it, how exactly do the Men in Black swoop in every time someone finds evidence of Bigfoot? How does it work, logistically?
